Source: Sup China (2/16/18)
China’s CCTV Spring Festival Gala Included A Truly Shameless Africa Skit, Featuring Blackface
A lowlight from the most-watched program on the planet.
By Anthony Tao

We need to talk about that Africa skit. You know the one.

Let me say up front that it’s dangerous and somewhat irresponsible to analyze a Chinese production — particularly one intended solely for a Chinese audience, whose understanding of ethnicity and race is filtered through a complicated and unique culture and history — through a purely American lens. I’ve watched this skit carefully, and I can’t find any intent to offend. Which is to say, there’s no real need to call it racist.

But this skit is clearly offensive — to sensibility, to foreigners, to intelligence, to one’s self-respect. To theater. To creativity. It is condescending, and willfully so, making it all the more offensive. It is arrogant and tone-deaf and shallow. It’s hard not to be embarrassed. Continue reading →

Source: World of Chinese (1/9/17)
TV’s latest Zhuge Liang wins audiences with English
It was the only thing the genius Three Kingdoms strategist couldn’t do
By Sun Jiahui (孙佳慧)

Second-century military strategist Zhuge Liang has been depicted as being “so wise that he was practically a demon”, at least according to writer Lu Xun. Fictionalized in the 14th-century novel The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, one of China’s “Four Classics,” “Zhuge” has since become a byword for wisdom in China.

Given the renown of the character, it’s a tall order for any actor to play Zhuge without fans criticizing one detail or another. A recent TV series may have found the answer—with a Zhuge who happens to know English. Continue reading →

Source: China Daily (10/13/17)
Hit online drama sets new record for domestic crime shows
By Li Wenrui

Day and Night, an online crime drama, broadcast the finale on Oct 11. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The year looks like the golden time for domestic crime shows. Audience taste has shifted from time-travelling heroines with embroidered garments to rigorous-thinking detectives tracking serial killers.

Well-made internet series sprung up like mushrooms after the screening of summer blockbusters. Day and Night, Burning Ice, Line Walker II are three of the most popular ones recently released on video sites Youku, iQiyi, and QQ Live respectively.

Audience-oriented scripts, broad online exposure, and handpicked cast help network crime shows gain a strong viewership.

Day and Night, widely reckoned as the best crime drama of the year, got a total of 24.6 billion hits online by this Thursday. Continue reading →

Source: What’s on Weibo (9/13/17)
One of China’s Longest-Running and Most Popular Talkshows Suddenly Cancelled
By Manya Koetse and Diandian Guo

The popular Chinese talk show “Behind the Headlines” (锵锵三人行), that was broadcasted by Phoenix TV since 1998, has been suddenly terminated. The name of the show itself has become a ‘sensitive’ and censored term on Weibo since September 12.

One of China’s most successful and long-lasting talk shows has suddenly been canceled after nearly 20 years.

Without further official statements, the TV show announced its termination on its Weibo channel on September 12: Continue reading →

Source: Sixth Tone (1/19/17)
Ode to Joy: A breath of fresh air on Chinese TV that turned toxic
A show about five millennial women making their way in Shanghai is a smash hit. What made it different from other Chinese TV shows, and where has it gone wrong?
By Jiayun Feng

Meet the characters of China’s hit show, Ode to Joy:

Andi 安迪

A former Wall Street executive who returns to China in search of her lost brother. Despite her beauty and intelligence, Andi has social phobias and no experience with relationships.

Qu Xiaoxiao 曲筱绡

Born to an affluent family, Qu is bold, fierce, and good at making drama out of ordinary life.

Continue reading →

Source: China Media Project (4/20/17)
Chinese Drama Shelved
By David Bandurski

CHINESE MEDIA REPORTED on April 17 that White Deer Plain (白鹿原), the television drama adapted from the novel of the same name by Chen Zhongshi, had been shelved after the airing of a single episode. It is not yet clear what the reasons are for the pulling of the drama — whether, for example, it is a suspension ordered by the authorities, or a decision taken by the show’s distributors — and there is so far no indication of whether or when the series might air again. Continue reading →

Source: SupChina (4/10/17)
Writer of anti-corruption TV series — and insurance regulator — investigated for corruption

Xiang Junbo 项俊波 was a PLA soldier who fought with Vietnamese forces in a border war in 1979 and went on to become a television writer and producer as well as a banker and financial regulator. He became chairman of the Agricultural Bank of China in 2009 before heading up the leadership role at the China Insurance Regulatory Commission. During his TV years, he wrote what Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao calls (in Chinese) the country’s “first television series about auditing work,” the popular 1986 show The People Will Not Forget (人民不会忘记 rénmín bù huì wàngjì). Continue reading →